On September 14, the NADO Research Foundation hosted the second installment of our three-part webinar series “September with the CEDS: Better Resilience through Better Planning” that takes a deeper dive into the recent revisions to EDA’s Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy (CEDS) Content Guidelines. The Guidelines suggest how to develop the document’s format and substance to make the strongest, most useful and effective CEDS possible – a true roadmap and driver of regional economic resilience. Building more resilient communities starts with better planning – planning that is comprehensive, forward-thinking, and goal-oriented.

These free hour-long webinars showcase Economic Development Districts throughout the country that have taken innovative planning approaches to integrating economic resilience into their CEDS through aligning existing regional planning processes, robustly analyzing their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, and developing relevant and realistic metrics for measuring their progress.

Our second installment focused on strengthening the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, & Threats (SWOT) analysis. Training was provided on how to craft a more effective SWOT analysis and incorporate the findings into goal setting and performance metrics. Attendees also heard from an economic development district that is currently using information from a robust SWOT analysis to inform the resilience component of their CEDS update.